Synonyms of murky

murky

adjective

ˈmər-kē 

1

as in darkened

being without light or without much light

I didn't like walking around the murky campground without a flashlight

Synonyms & Similar Words

• darkened
• dark
• black
• obscured
• obscure
• dim
• gloomy
• somber
• dusky
• lightless
• darkish
• stygian
• darkling
• dusk
• unlit
• dimmed
• pitch-black
• tenebrous
• pitch-dark
• darksome
• pitchy
• caliginous
• rayless
• shadowy
• twilit
• misty
• shady
• crepuscular
• gray
• clouded
• cloudy
• moonless
• tenebrific
• starless
• lackluster
• foggy
• dulled
• pale
• dull
• smoggy
• leaden
• fuliginous
• soupy
• sunless
• befogged
• shadowlike
• beclouded

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

• light
• bright
• brilliant
• luminous
• illuminated
• lucid
• shining
• sparkling
• lucent
• lit
• illumined
• brightened
• glaring
• resplendent
• radiant
• incandescent
• lightsome
• glowing
• effulgent
• beamy
• shiny
• lambent
• glossy
• lustrous
• alight
• beaming
• moonlit
• highlighted
• aglitter
• sunlit
• relucent
• agleam
• ultrabright
• moony
• spotlighted
• ablaze
• starlit
• floodlit

2

as in dark

causing or marked by an atmosphere lacking in cheer

the murky shadows of the cemetery

Synonyms & Similar Words

• dark
• bleak
• somber
• lonely
• depressive
• depressing
• desolate
• darkening
• solemn
• gray
• cold
• morbid
• blue
• lonesome
• black
• miserable
• gloomy
• cloudy
• dismal
• wretched
• dreary
• cheerless
• sullen
• depressed
• sad
• chill
• funereal
• lugubrious
• dire
• oppressive
• morose
• glum
• forlorn
• sepulchral
• saturnine
• elegiac
• disconsolate
• comfortless
• melancholy
• tenebrous
• drear
• godforsaken
• dreich
• unhappy
• desperate
• dim
• dull
• sunless
• plutonian
• grim
• Cimmerian
• hopeless
• negative
• mournful
• melancholic
• tenebrific
• woeful
• menacing
• woebegone
• low
• discouraging
• dismaying
• dejected
• distressful
• mirthless
• dispiriting
• upsetting
• distressing
• pessimistic
• despondent
• down
• disheartening
• droopy
• drab
• inconsolable
• discomfiting
• sorrowful
• lamentable
• colorless
• plaintive
• hangdog
• dour
• threatening
• lowering
• lowery

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

• bright
• friendly
• cheerful
• cheery
• festive
• cordial
• gay
• comforting
• sunshiny
• joyous
• buoyant
• merry
• joyful
• jolly
• gay
• optimistic
• blithe
• mirthful
• hopeful
• encouraging
• heartwarming
• cheering
• blithesome
• jocund
• lighthearted
• lightsome

3

as in hazy

filled with or dimmed by fine particles (as of dust or water) in suspension

skies made murky from the smoke of forest fires that were many miles to the west

Synonyms & Similar Words

• hazy
• misty
• rainy
• clouded
• foggy
• thick
• cloudy
• muddy
• smoggy
• smoky
• milky
• soupy
• gauzy
• befogged
• turbid
• beclouded
• slimy
• overcast
• brumous
• mucky
• stormy
• slushy
• opaque
• dirty
• miasmic
• smudgy
• miasmatic
• sooty
• miasmal
• miry
• filmy

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

• clear
• limpid
• cloudless
• bright
• clean
• unclouded
• pellucid
• sunny
• fair
• transparent
• translucent
• sunshiny
• clement

4

as in ambiguous

having an often intentionally veiled or uncertain meaning

a murky reply to a question about his intentions

Synonyms & Similar Words

• ambiguous
• dark
• cryptic
• obscure
• mysterious
• enigmatic
• mystic
• vague
• unclear
• opaque
• esoteric
• nebulous
• questionable
• inscrutable
• uncertain
• deep
• equivocal
• occult
• arcane
• confusing
• Delphic
• fuliginous
• hazy
• elliptical
• obscurant
• complicated
• shadowy
• muddy
• fuzzy
• eerie
• weird
• indistinct
• foggy
• misty
• clouded
• shrouded
• uncanny
• double-edged
• recondite
• difficult
• abstruse
• cloudy
• faint
• dim
• undefined
• complex
• cloaked
• indirect
• shaded
• incomprehensible
• disguised
• inexplicable
• undetermined
• perplexing
• puzzling
• indecipherable
• masked
• inexact
• indefinite
• concealed
• indistinguishable
• invisible
• baffling
• intangible
• impenetrable
• unknowable
• noncommittal
• obfuscatory
• bewildering
• unfathomable
• confounding
• mystifying
• unanswerable
• impalpable
• inexplicit
• befogged
• beclouded
• sphinxlike
• inappreciable
• shadowlike
• circuitous
• obtuse
• bedimmed
• roundabout
• obnubilated

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

• clear
• obvious
• plain
• unambiguous
• accessible
• understandable
• distinct
• unequivocal
• certain
• bright
• evident
• comprehensible
• legible
• intelligible
• strong
• sure
• firm
• pellucid
• knowable
• defined
• direct
• nonambiguous
• straightforward
• fathomable
• explicit
• definite
• visible
• determined
• exact
• self-evident
• self-explanatory
• tangible
• appreciable
• palpable
• unmistakable
• blatant
• patent

5

as in vague

not seen or understood clearly

a gubernatorial candidate with a murky position on the hot-button issue of capital punishment

Synonyms & Similar Words

• vague
• hazy
• faint
• unclear
• shadowy
• dark
• pale
• indistinct
• nebulous
• fuzzy
• foggy
• opaque
• misty
• obscure
• blurry
• undefined
• dim
• undetermined
• indefinite
• indistinguishable
• bleary
• blear
• gauzy
• gloomy
• dusky
• mysterious
• invisible
• intangible
• puzzling
• incomprehensible
• inexplicable
• impalpable
• inappreciable
• indiscernible
• indecipherable
• obfuscatory
• hieroglyphic

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

• clear
• definite
• obvious
• distinct
• bright
• evident
• plain
• certain
• pellucid
• strong
• sure
• firm

Example Sentences

Recent Examples of murky

Many of the battlegrounds are set, and a few are yet to be decided in primaries, but the answer remains murky. — Maham Javaid, NPR, 27 July 2026

But the ethical waters are murky, and any such project should have high levels of public transparency and accountability, said Lisa Moses, a veterinarian and bioethicist at Harvard Medical School. — Jessie Yeung, CNN Money, 25 July 2026

Now, though, that rather murky picture is growing a bit clearer. — Evan Drellich, New York Times, 24 July 2026

The whole thing lands closer to a murky inversion of early Return to Forever than the punk spasms of Naked City. — Sam Goldner, Pitchfork, 23 July 2026